I just signed a petition calling for Norwegian universities to use research expertise on AI when deciding how to implement it, rather than having decisions be made mostly administratively. , If you are a researcher in Norway, please read it and sign it if you agree – and share with anyone else who might be interested. The petition was written by three researchers at UiT: Maria Danielsen (a philosopher who completed her PhD in 2025 on AI and ethics, including discussions of art and working life), Knut Ørke (Norwegian as a second language), and Holger Pötzsch (a professor of media studies with many years of research on digital media, video games, disruption, and working life, among other topics). This is not about preventing researchers from exploring AI methods in their research. It is about not uncritically accepting the hype that everyone must use AI everywhere without critical reflection. It is about not introducing Copilot as the default option in word processors, or training PhD candidates to believe they will fall behind if they do not use AI when writing articles, without proper academic discussion. Changes like these should be knowledge-based and discussed academically, not merely decided administratively, because they alter the epistemological foundations of research. Maria wrote to me a couple of months ago because she had read my opinion piece in Aftenposten in which I called for a strong brake on the use of language models in knowledge work. She was part of a committee tasked with developing UiT’s AI strategy and was concerned because there was so much hype and so few members of the committee with actual expertise in AI. I fully support the petition. There are probably some good uses for AI in research, but the uncritical, hype-driven insistence that we must simply adopt it everywhere is highly risky. There are many researchers in Norway with strong expertise in AI, language, ethics, working life, and culture. We must make use of this expertise. This is also partly about respect for research in the humanities, social sciences, psychology, and law. Introducing AI at universities and university colleges is not merely a technical issue, and perhaps not even primarily a technical one. It concerns much more: philosophy of science, methodological reflection, epistemology, writing, publishing, the working environment, and more. […]
Liz
Ha! That sounds *very* familiar.
Lisa Firke
Very familiar indeed.
A later development is that you buy food only to discover the next day that someone (could it be the teenaged boy in the house?) has eaten it all after you went to bed.
Jill
Oh no! You mean they get their revenge! Scary thought…
Norman
Find the darkest non-sweetned chocalate you can, and tell your daughter it’s an anti-oxidant [which chocolate is] that some older people eat. Provided she doesn’t like it, you then keep that wrapper, and insert other chocolate into it when you’re having an illegal mid-week nibble of a night.
It’s an old plan, but it might just work.
Alternatively, you could just be more surreptitious about how you eat it.
Jill
Brilliant! I’m going to implement this plan instantly! Well, next week, my daughter’s at her dad’s this week, so I can eat all the chocolate I like!